"I have taken a wide circuit, and trespassed, I fear, too long upon your patient. Yet I cannot conclude without endeavoring to bring home your thoughts to an object more immediately interesting to us, than any I have yet considered: I mean the internal condition of this country. We may look abroad for wealth or triumphs, or luxury; but England, my lords, is the main stay, the last resort of the whole empire. To this point, every scheme of policy, whether foreign or domestic, should ultimately refer.
Have any measures been taken to satisfy, or to unite the people? Are the grievances they have so long complained of removed? or do they stand not only redressed, but aggravated? Is the right of free election restored to the elective body! My lords, I myself am one of the people. I esteem that security and independence, which is the original birthright of an Englishman, far beyond the privileges, however splendid, which are annexed to the peerage. I myself am by birth an English elector, and join with the freeholders of England as in a common cause. Believe me, my lords , we mistake our real interest as much as our duty, when we separate ourselves from the mass of the people. Can it be expected that Englishmen will unite heartily in defense of a government, by which they feel themselves insulted and oppressed? Restore them to their rights; that is the true way to make them unanimous . It is not a ceremonious recommendation from the throne, that can bring back peace and harmony to a discontented people. That insipid annual opiate has been administered so long, that it has lost its effect. Something substantial, something effectual must be done.
The public credit of the nation stands next in degree to the rights of the constitution; it calls loudly for the interposition of Parliament . There is a set of men, my lords, in the city of London, who are known to live in riot and luxury, upon the plunder of the ignorant , the innocent, the helpless; upon that part of the community, which stands most in need of, and best de serves the care and protection of the legislature. To me, my lords, whether they be miserable jobbers of Exchange Alley, or the lofty Asiatic plunderers of Leadenhall -street, they are all equally detestable. I care but little whether a man walks on foot, or drawn by eight or six horses . If is luxury be supported by the plunder of his country, I despise and detest him.
[...] I hope, my lords, that nothing I have said will be understood to extend to the honest, industrious tradesman, who holds the middle rank, and has given repeated proofs, that he prefers law and liberty to gold. I love that class of men. [...]
I know that I will be accused of attempting to revive distinctions. My lords, if it were possible, I would abolish all distinctions. I would not wish the favours of the crown to flow invariably in one channel. But there are some distinctions which are inherent in the nature of things. There is a distinction between right and wrong; between whig and tory."
Conclusion of a Celebrated Speech of Mr. Pitt, in 1770, in Support of a Motion made in Parliament, to Request the King to Lay Before that Body All the Papers, Relative to Certain Depredations of the Spaniards, and Likewise, to a Treaty Which He was Then Negociating with Spain, William Pitt
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